The first rule of sales is “Know Thy Audience.”  Anyone who deals with sales and marketing probably knows at least a little about the various generations living today.   For business purposes, there are currently six generations or audiences today.   The frugal Silent Generation, born from 1929 to 1945 and now in their 70s and 80s, grew up during the Great Depression and World War II.   The free-spirited Baby Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964), who grew up during the Civil Rights movement and the Cold War, are now beginning to retire and are redefining what that means.  The GenXers or Boomlets (born 1965 to 1981) were the latch key kids who grew up during the race to Space and the Vietnam War.  Theirs was the first generation to transition from an analog to a digital world.  Generation Y — the now much discussed Millennials (born between 1982 and 1999) — were the first generation to grow up as technology natives and watched terrorism become a global threat.   As the currently biggest generation living (80 million in the U.S. alone), they only want to do meaningful work, aren’t interested in office politics, the status quo or paying their dues.  But there are two more generations emerging.  Meet the iGens and the Alphas. Continue reading →

Mistaking Confidence for Competence

Hiring managers often claim to prefer employees with the right character traits and organizational fit over those with the right education, training, skills and experience.  They want people with a positive attitude, drive and passion.  But what they are really looking for are people who exude confidence.  Finding a highly confident employee is viewed like striking gold!  Why?  Confident people are seen as being self-assured, reliable, assertive, positive, dependable and steady.  Confident people also tend to be charismatic, extroverted, and have strong social skills.  In most cultures, these are highly desirable qualities.  Also, in practically every culture — but especially in the technologically-advanced, developed world – confidence is equated with competence.  We automatically assume that confident people are able, skilled and talented. Continue reading →